Although thus cast down by earthly feelings, divine
Faith raises one up again. Divine Faith! the
noblest and brightest, and holiest gift of God to
man; always teaching us to look heavenward—­Excelsior
in its theme for ever. And who can doubt but
the God of all consolation and mercy received the
souls of his famine-slain poor into that kingdom of
glory where He dwells, and which He had purchased
for them at so great a price. Even in their imperfections
and sins, they were like to Him in many ways; they
were poor, they were despised, they had not whereon
to lay their head; they were long-suffering, too;
in the deepest pangs which they had suffered from
hunger and burning thirst (the last and most terrible
effect of hunger), they cursed not, they reviled not;
they only yearned for the consolations of their holy
religion, and looked hopefully to Him for a better
world. It is one of the sweetest consolations
taught us by holy Faith that the bones now withered
and nameless in those famine pits, where they were
laid in their shroudless misery, shall one day, touched
by His Almighty power, be reunited to those happy
souls, in a union that can know no end, and can feel
no sorrow.

FOOTNOTES:

[174] “It cannot be too strongly lamented, the
opportunity which has been lost for the present, of
adopting reproductive employment; but it is not now
a question of productive or non-productive employment,
it is a question of life or death to those famishing
and destitute, anxiously waiting for the means of
procuring food.... A general and well-digested
Drainage Bill, applicable to Ireland, cannot be hastily
prepared; if so it may be again a nugatory one, and
it is some great measure, and great
expenditure for some years to come, under a Drainage
and reclaiming of waste lands Bill, that is to be
of permanent and effectual relief to this impoverished
country.”—­Mr. Lambert of Brookhill’s
letter to the Lord Lieutenant, October 4th.

[175] Irish Crisis, p. 68.

[176] If the word of a Scotch farmer may be accepted,
this seems a great exaggeration. Mr. Hope, of
Fentonbarn, at the monthly meeting of the Haddington
Farmers’ Club, said, lately: “It was
only after the great disaster of 1845 that
potatoes began to be grown to any extent in Scotland.”—­Irish
Farmers’ Gazette for 16th Nov., 1872, p. 399.
But Lord John was only too glad to praise the Scotch
at our expense.

[177] Some time ago, an English gentleman, who is
an Irish landlord, and one in no bad repute either,
was told that, for reasons detailed to him, he ought
not to continue a certain agent in his employment:
he answered—­“I do not care for all
that—­he gets me my rent.”